Deli Owner Accused Of Telling Man He’d Only Won $1,000 In Lottery Instead Of $1M

Wherever there’s money to be handed out, there will always be those sharks swimming around just waiting to take what isn’t rightfully theirs. That’s why it’s a good idea to have someone around to help when you win the lottery, in case someone’s waiting to chow down on your bounty. Police say one deli owner and his son tried to snag $999,000 from a lottery winner who’d won $1 million by telling him he only scored $1,000.

According to the cops, the man who brought in the $10 “Unwrap the Cash” scratch-off ticket spoke Spanish and wasn’t so great at English, reports the New York Daily News.

When he presented the deli guys with his ticket last week at the store, officials say they didn’t tell him to go to a State Lottery office to collect his winnings, but instead allegedly said something like, “Oh you just won a grand, here’s the cash,” right out of the register.

Something smelled fishy to our lucky winner, so he went back the next day to the deli and pushed the matter further.

“Okay, I will pay you $10,000 as long as you don’t involve the police,” the deli’s owner allegedly said, while his son chimed in to agree that he’d only won that amount.

The hero of our story knew he had money waiting for him so he called the police, who confirmed that he was indeed, a millionaire, then arrested the owner and his son and charged them with second-degree grand larceny.

I don’t buy the “Machine malfunction” defense. All tickets with winnings above $600 have to be cashed at a lottery office. I worked in a store with lottery, and this was drilled into the heads of anyone that worked the cash registers.